Almost all the crime at casinos is in the neighborhoods around them, something the casinos themselves poo-poo.Here's one from today:

Timothy Hauser, 62, from Bartlesville went missing in August after last being seen at the Osage Casino.The remains were found near Highway 60 on County Road 3425.Trysta Shaffer, 28, and Rusty Petty, 40, were arrested in connection with the crime in August. They were both seen leaving with Hauser at the casino.

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"Tulsa will lay off police and firemen before we will cut back on unnecessarily wasteful streetlights." -- March 18, 2009 TulsaNow Forum

Two months after being elected to his tribe’s council in 2009, Muscogee (Creek) Nation Chief George Tiger signed a lucrative consulting contract with the developer of a proposed Broken Arrow casino promising Tiger a share of gaming revenue on the project, which would compete with his own tribe’s casino, a Tulsa World investigation has found.

In the years following that secret deal, Tiger worked behind the scenes with developer Shane Rolls and the Kialegee Tribal Town to gain approval for the Kialegee casino. Meanwhile, then-Creek Nation Chief A.D. Ellis and other tribal officials fought to stop what they viewed as an assault on Creek Nation sovereignty.Tiger said his actions were legal and not a conflict of interest because they occurred before he was sworn into office as a tribal councilor in January 2010.“I’ve been involved with tribal government since I was 24 years old, so I know right from wrong when it comes to conduct of an elected official,” said Tiger, 64.The Kialegee Tribal Town, based in Wetumka, was part of the original Creek Nation confederacy along with several other tribal settlements in Oklahoma. Today, the Kialegee are members of a separate, federally recognized tribe with its own government and about 400 members.

The World recently obtained a copy of Tiger’s signed contract, copies of checks Rolls wrote to Tiger and a draft of a lawsuit Rolls threatened to file against Tiger related to the controversial casino deal. The records show Rolls agreed to give Tiger 5 percent of his company’s ownership in the casino, $5,000 per month once it opened and up to $200,000 in bonus payments.

After the World contacted Rolls about the consulting contract in late February, his attorney, Joe Farris, arranged an interview and said Tiger would also attend.

Rolls had prepared a lawsuit against Tiger alleging he accepted more than $30,000 but failed to abide by their contract. However Rolls, of Tulsa, is now on good terms with the chief and won’t file the lawsuit, Farris said.

Tiger and Rolls confirmed that the contract, checks and draft lawsuit obtained by the World were authentic documents. Both said they had done nothing wrong and the documents represent a failed business deal.

Records show nearly all of Rolls’ $31,500 in payments to Tiger came after he was an elected official, as defined by the Creek Nation’s law and constitution.After Tiger was elected chief in 2011, records show he continued to accept money from Rolls and attended several meetings on the casino project.His about-face happened after he was sworn in as chief and opposition grew. At the time, the project appeared to be a lost cause and Tiger calculated it was not worth the political cost, Farris said.

However the contract raises questions about where the chief stands now and whether he will support a new plan — detailed in a Tulsa World story Saturday — by the Kialgee Tribal Town to build a casino in the Tulsa area.

Because the Kialegee tribe has no land in the Tulsa area, the new casino would almost certainly be built on Creek land, requiring support from Tiger and a majority of the tribe’s council for a “nation to nation” deal.

But the Creek Nation’s River Spirit Casino is undergoing a massive $329 million expansion, adding a Margaritaville-themed casino, restaurant and 27-story hotel.And the lender’s terms for that project won’t allow the Creeks to open a competing casino in the surrounding area.Additionally, some tribal leaders say Tiger’s contract with Rolls is evidence he has acted against his tribe’s interests. The Kialegee casino would have siphoned up to $40 million away each year from the River Spirit Casino, Ellis said.

“It was going to hurt our casino a lot,” said Ellis, the Creek Nation’s chief from 2007-2011.Chief opened door for developer

In the middle of the tribal politics is Rolls, who lives in Tulsa and has completed commercial developments in Florida. He formed Golden Canyon Partners LLC shortly after signing the contract with Tiger.

Rolls said he hired Tiger to help gain approval by landowners and elected officials in both tribes for the Kialegee casino.

“You hire a consultant who knows the way and can open the door. … The way I know to get into Indian country is hire an Indian.”

But Rolls said he insisted the agreement be in writing and “above board.”

“He (Tiger) and I were very careful, and I always said, ‘I’m not doing anything illegal.’ That’s why you’ve got agreements; that’s why you’ve got canceled checks and everything. … I could have just given him cash.”

The contract contains a clause requiring the agreement and payments to Tiger be kept confidential, even after the contract expires. Tiger said he never disclosed the contract to his tribe, despite his veto of tribal legislation opposing the casino.

Although the deal to open the Red Clay Casino in Broken Arrow stalled in 2012, records show Rolls had already paid him more than $20,000 by that time.

Tiger said he didn’t need to publicly disclose the contract because he signed it before being sworn into office as a tribal councilor in 2010. Once he became a tribal councilor, he said, he did not continue as a consultant for Rolls, though he did take part in meetings about the project and accepted money for his campaign.

“It’s not criminal. I mean, it was during the time when I wasn’t a council member or an elected official.”

The tribe’s laws define a person as an “elected official” after he or she is elected to office. Its constitution states candidates are considered “elected” when they receive a majority of votes cast.

Tiger was elected in the Sept. 19, 2009, primary and signed the consulting contract Nov. 3, 2009.

Farris said he is unsure whether Rolls was aware Tiger was already an elected official when the two signed the contract.

“We didn’t pay attention to the timeline. We hired him as a consultant to help with the politics,” Farris said.

While Rolls and Tiger said their agreement is no longer in effect, they said there is no documentation showing it has been rescinded.

The contract contains no language stating it is invalid after Tiger takes office, but Farris said that was understood.

Under that scenario, Tiger’s consulting contract would be in effect for less than two months after he signed it.

Rolls’ payments to Tiger began in 2009, with an $8,000 check before he was elected and checks totaling $15,000 after the election. The contract includes a promissory note from Tiger agreeing to repay the $15,000 with proceeds from his consulting agreement.

Rolls said Tiger has not had to repay the loan because “the statute of limitations ran out.”

While on the tribal council, Tiger testified during a March 2011 court hearing at the request of the casino’s supporters.

Marcella Giles, an attorney and co-owner of the Broken Arrow property, told the judge: “We have a member, Mr. George Tiger, of the council of the Creek Nation that would, I believe, state that it is the position of the Creek Nation that their sister tribe has shared jurisdiction of that property.”

An attorney for Ellis told the judge that Tiger “does not speak for the government as a whole.”‘Don’t cash it’

Records show Rolls paid Tiger $3,500 on the final day of that court hearing. Later that year, after Tiger filed to run for chief, Rolls paid him $5,000.

Tiger said that after he was sworn into office, Rolls’ payments were campaign donations and not for work on the casino project.

Records show that after Tiger was elected chief, Rolls wrote him a check for $7,000 but stopped payment when Tiger publicly opposed the casino project.

“The minute he went against me, I said, ‘Don’t cash it’ and he said, ‘No problem.’ And then I cussed him out a little bit and went on down the road,” Rolls said.

Rolls said the funds were campaign contributions and “to help him with his loan, his personal stuff.”

As detailed in the draft lawsuit, Tiger said he continued to meet with key players in the casino deal — Rolls, Kialegee “Mekko” Tiger Hobia, and property owners — through August 2012.Tiger said he continued meeting with Rolls, Hobia and others because he wanted to negotiate a “nation to nation” agreement to help the small sister tribe open its own casino.However, Ellis, who narrowly defeated Tiger in the 2007 election for chief, said Tiger’s motivation is clear. He said he recently became aware of the contract and payments Tiger accepted from Rolls.

“This chief down there is all about money for himself,” Ellis said.

He estimated Tiger personally would have collected about $2 million a year from the Kialegee casino “if it was moderately successful.”

When asked whether he will support the Kialegees’ quest to open a casino in the Tulsa area, Tiger said: “Economic development is certainly something that I certainly support.”

“We can do it nation to nation. That’s something that has to be considered very heavily,” he said.

However Tiger rejects the charge that his support would be acting against his tribe’s interests. The Creek Nation has a “unique relationship” with the Kialegees and other tribal towns that are part of the Creek’s history.

“They’re all federally recognized tribes, but they are also members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, so how can you sell out someone that you are representing?” Tiger asked.

He said the Creek Nation is thriving under his leadership.

“Before I came in, we were stagnated as a nation. Now we’ve got a renaissance. … My political opponents see that and that’s why we are having this discussion.”

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